 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Caliber Bodyworks11/23/2005
CERTIFIED FOR PUBLICATION
The State's labor law enforcement agencies -- the Labor and Workforce Development Agency (LWDA) and its constituent departments and divisions -- are authorized to assess and collect civil penalties for specified violations of the Labor Code committed by an employer. (E.g., Lab. Code, § 210 [authorizing Labor Commissioner to recover civil penalties as part of a hearing or civil action to recover unpaid wages and penalties for violations of Lab. Code, §§ 204, 204b, 204.1, 204.2, 205, 205.5 and 1197.5]. With a stated goal of improving enforcement of existing Labor Code obligations, the Legislature adopted the Labor Code Private Attorneys General Act of 2004 (Act) (§ 2698 et seq.), permitting, as an alternative, an aggrieved employee to initiate a private civil action on behalf of himself or herself and other current or former employees to recover civil penalties if the LWDA does not do so. The penalties collected in these private civil actions are to be distributed 75 percent to the State and 25 percent to the aggrieved employee. Before an employee may file an action seeking to recover civil penalties for violations of any of the Labor Code provisions enumerated in section 2699.5, however, he or she must comply with the Act's administrative procedures as set forth in section 2699.3, subdivision (a), which include providing notice to the LWDA and the employer and waiting a prescribed period of time to permit the LWDA to investigate and to decide whether to cite the employer for the alleged violations.
In this case aggrieved employees, on behalf of themselves individually and as putative class representatives, filed a wage-and-hour action against their former employer seeking, among other remedies, civil penalties for violations of several of the Labor Code provisions specified in section 2699.5. The employees did not allege they had satisfied the Act's pre-filing notice and exhaustion requirements before initiating their lawsuit; and their operative complaint does not mention the Act, let alone request remedies under it. Can this putative class action complaint survive a demurrer despite plaintiffs' failure to plead compliance with section 2699.3, subdivision (a)'s administrative prerequisites to filing suit? The trial court held it could. We agree, albeit for a different reason, but only in part.
Section 2699.3, subdivision (a)'s pre-filing notice and exhaustion requirements broadly apply to employee actions seeking civil penalties that may be assessed by the LWDA for any alleged violation of dozens of Labor Code provisions enumerated in section 2699.5. Nothing in the statute exempts an aggrieved employee whose complaint avoids any reference to the Act or seeks remedies in addition to civil penalties from complying with section 2699.3, subdivision (a). Accordingly, Caliber's demurrer should have been sustained without leave to amend as to the causes of action seeking only civil penalties (the ninth, eleventh and twelfth causes of action) on the ground plaintiffs failed to plead compliance with section 2699.3, subdivision (a). As to those causes of action seeking civil penalties as well as unpaid wages and statutory penalties payable to the employee (the first, third and fourth causes of action), the demurrer was properly overruled because only those portions of the causes of action seeking civil penalties are objectionable based on plaintiffs' failure to plead compliance with section 2699.3, subdivision (a). Nevertheless, because plaintiffs cannot pursue civil penalties absent compliance with section 2699.3, subdivision (a), the portions of the first, third and fourth causes of action seeking civil penalties are ordered stricken. Finally, the demurrer also was
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 California Employee Leasing Services
Employee Leasing Services
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Employee Leasing Services in your area.
|
|